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Academic Nasser Bin Ghaith faces serious health conditon

Academic Nasser Bin Ghaith suffering from poor health while waiting for Federal Appeal Court to set date to hear his case.

The situation under which Dr. Naser is held, is extremely harsh and failing to meet the minimum standards of the international prisons conditions. Since he was arrested in August 2015 until date, he is still in a solitary confinement. He was in secret detention for 9 months, and then transferred to Al-Sader jail, in the Security award, under which he remained in solitary confinement for the whole duration expect for two weeks. They only allow him to leave the cell for an hour to walk in the sun since his transfer to this jail.

He also faced several health condition issues, and suffered until got treatment for some. He had teeth pain and it took weeks before he sees a doctor, and it took several weeks to allow his eye glasses to be given to him, but now for many weeks he is having a serious medical issues that requires an immediate attention by a specialized doctor but he is not getting it.

They also refused to give him the winter cloths that his family brought to him, and sometimes they would not even give him the money that his family deposit to him in the jail to buy things from the grocery store there for couple of weeks, no phone calls allowed to the lawyer, and calls to his family are arbitrary, sometimes allowed and sometimes not allowed for weeks. Dr. Naser also suffer from blood pressure, sometimes they give him the medicine and sometimes not (they tell him it’s not available!). Blood pressure was measured for him last time before more than 9 moths!

He is truly suffering there in these prison conditions, and there is one officer (Dhyab) who treats them worst than all. Dr. Naser describe his earlier imprisonment in 2011 as part of UAE5 case as a journey compared to the current situation and this last arrest. All he is asking for is to be treated as an accused person who is not yet found guilty, with the minimum rights that prisoners are supposed to have. Even that is not attainable to him!

Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal court, which is the court now examining cases of internal and external state security, as a court of first instance. Cases can now be appealed through the Federal Supreme Court. No date has yet been set for a hearing at the Federal Appeal Court in Abu Dhabi.

Bin Ghaith faces several charges stemming from his peaceful criticism on Twitter of Egyptian and Emirati authorities, which could lead to decades in prison. Authorities also accuse him of violating the country’s repressive counterterrorism law by collaborating with local groups the authorities have classified as terrorist.